The present invention provides a wasp excluder and exhaust port protector which effectively excludes wasps and other insects, is automatically self-clearing of nests, mud, wax, and ice that may collect on the outside, and provides straight through discharge of air with minimal back pressure and resistance to flow.
Another object is to provide a wasp excluder and exhaust port protector of extreme simplicity and small size which is inexpensive to manufacture consisting of only three easily assemblable parts with no screws, pins, washers or rivets which might easily be lost.
A specific object of the invention is to provide a wasp excluder having a housing in which a radially-slitted valve disc or rubber-like material of special design is held in an outlet bore of the housing by a retaining ring.
A special feature of the invention is in the shape of and the support for the rubber-like valve which is formed with a plurality of radial, internally concave, externally convex, hollow ribs, all meeting in a recess at the center, and radial slits extending through the body along the middles of the ribs and meeting in the center of the disc to define a plurality of elastic sectors which open when air pressure is applied from within; and the other radial end portions of the hollow ribs are engaged by the retaining ring to prevent radial expansion under pressure and to cause the slits to be opened uniformly by air flow.